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Marching Band Member Down
Location: Maple Heights, Ohio Date: December 5, 1992 Story In Maple Heights, Ohio, Terri Lynn Smith was trying to cope with the difficult breakup of her marriage. But she had set aside the morning of December 5, 1992, to watch her fourteen-year-old daughter, Nicki, march in the local Winter Fest Parade. "Nicki's a quiet child. She's always there for people but she stayed to herself. She had asthma since she was five and when she's doing a lot of activity it flares up. Her dad kept telling her to march with her friends but just don't blow the instrument. They had never had a Christmas parade and she wanted to do it," remembers Terri Lynn. Nicki's friend, Cherise Rae, was also marching in the parade. "Everything seemed to be normal until we got to the middle of the parade," said Cherise. Nicki started gasping for air and held her chest. Cherise screamed for help and yelled that Nicki was having trouble breathing. Assistant band director Nick Pure was a few rows behind Nicki. "We know that she was asthmatic and I thought, 'She'll be okay. I've seen this happen before,'" said Nick. He saw a truck nearby and thought that if he got inside it might be warm and she could breathe better. Suddenly, Nicki collapsed into Nick's arms. Firefighter paramedic Bill Wheeler had pulled the antique fire truck he was driving off the parade route when he saw that she was in trouble. "The band director asked if we could contact the rescue squad because the girl was having a bad asthma attack and at that time she collapsed again on the running board. She was gasping for air and wasn't responding at all to me," said Bill. Terri Lynn saw the band come down the street and noticed that Nicki was no longer marching in it. Three girls ran up and told her that Nicki had an asthma attack and that she was in the ambulance. She rushed to the scene, where the paramedics placed Nicki on oxygen immediately. "She was responding and trying to talk to us which we knew then well at least the airway is so far intact which is what we wanted," said Bill. "When I got to the ambulance, she was just sitting there and I talked to her and said, 'Nicki are you okay?' and she just kept nodding her head and then she said, 'Tell Grandma, I'm okay,' and I said okay. That made me feel good," said Terri Lynn. Bill finished up packing his things and got ready to leave, but the paramedic yelled for him to come back in because Nicki was having a seizure. In the ambulance, her heart stopped beating and the paramedics had to defib her. "She was in critical condition as we pulled into the ER parking lot and we shocked her right there," said Bill. At Merida Suburban Hospital, EMS director Dr. Arnold Felton treated Nicki. "It's not very common for children to have primary heart problems," said Dr. Felton. Terri Lynn, her youngest daughter, Diane, and her mother were waiting and heard code blue. "I just felt it was somebody else. I just knew it wasn't my daughter," said Terri Lynn. Nicki continued to experience arrhythmia and suffered another cardiac arrest. Dr. Felton told her family that she just went into cardiac arrest. "The first thing I said was, 'No you got the wrong person. She came in for asthma," said Terri Lynn. Diane asked to see her. "The nurse took me by the hand and took me in there. I looked at my sister and she had tubes everywhere. She didn't look like herself at all and that's when I almost passed out. I was just crying and screaming and trying to make myself believe that it wasn't true," said Diane. As Nicki's condition deteriorated, she taken to Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital where they had a special pediatric intensive care unit. Terri Lynn joined her there. "They wouldn't let me talk to her, they wouldn't let me touch her, and I looked up and the screen went black," said Terri Lynn. Nicki suffered another cardiac arrest and doctors had to do CPR to revive her. Dr. Dan Lebowitz took over her care. "Over the four to six hour period following her admission to the intensive care unit until she had approximately 15 to 20 episodes of abnormal heart rhythms that all of which potentially could've led to her death. We treat many children with severe asthma and they don't do this. So we had to find another cause," said Dr. Lebowitz. Dr. Lebowitz spoke to Nicki's family and told them that she had taken an overdose. "I looked at the doctor and said, 'No, Nicki don't take no overdose,' and it's like when did she do it. She showed no signs that she was going to do it," said Terri Lynn. She was finally allowed to go in and see her. She opened her eyes and told Terri Lynn to hold her. "I did exactly what she wanted me to do. I just held her and squeezed her," said Terri Lynn. "They said when I was in the hospital, I told my head nurse that I had taken the overdose on purpose. It was a stupid thing that I did, but you learn from your mistakes," said Nicki. It's been fourteen months since Nicki overdosed on her prescription medication. Both she and Terri Lynn have gotten counseling. "I was going through a rough divorce situation and I was almost making Nicki the mom," said Terri Lynn. Since the incident, Nicki had to give up playing the flute and started singing in a church choir. Category:1992 Category:Ohio Category:Asthma Category:Cardiac Arrest Category:Seizures Category:Holiday Category:Christmas